An Introduction To Ngöndro

An Introduction to Ngndro
Mindrolling Jetsn Khandro Rinpoche

This teaching is excerpted from the complete teachings on the Ati Zabdn ngndro, given
by Jetsn Khandro Rinpoche in 2012 at Mindrolling Lotus Garden, during the vajrayana
section of Annual Retreat. This copy is for your use only and not to be distributed or
reproduced in any form.

An Introduction to Ngndro

Many practitioners are now doing ngndro very dedicatedly or are inspired to begin the
ngndro practices. Therefore, to provide a strong foundation for your practices and an
understanding of just how important ngndro is, this is a good time to refer to the Ati
Zabdn commentary on ngndro.

The name of the liturgy and root text is Ati Zabdn, The Profound Essence. This cycle of
teachings and transmissions is more formally designated Ati Zabdn Ngndro. One could do a
shorter commentary on working with ngndro. Sometimes being simpler is good; it may
bring more confidence and courage to engage in the practices. On the negative side, you may
then come up with a lot of notions or rumors about ngndro. So here we will touch on
many, if not all, of the main headings and details of the practices known as ngndro, or
preliminaries.

NGNDRO: THE FOUNDATION OF VAJRAYANA

Preliminaries usually refer to things that precede. However there seem to be many different
ideas about this term. Some of you write to me to say that you stopped doing ngndro and
now you want to go backas if to say back to basics, as if the preliminaries were like
going back to the kindergarten level of vajrayana. Instead, the preliminaries should be seen as
the leaders, giving direction to your whole vajrayana path of practice. This is the way the
great masters related to ngndro.

Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, for example, even in his eighties, never went a day without doing
the ngndro practices. The last scolding I got from Rinpoche was for not doing enough
prostrations. After I told him I was doing fifty prostrations a day, he said that he was doing
100. [Rinpoche laughs.] It was the same with the other great masters. Kyabje Tenga
Rinpoche, even after losing his limbs, never went a day without doing ngndro practices.
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche kept ngndro as his daily practice right up to the end of
his life. And Kyabje Trichen Rinpoche, even when he couldnt walk, still kept ngndro as his
main practice.

This is the way ngndro is traditionally seennot as a prelude to other practices or
something to get over with quickly. As Patrul Rinpoche says, ngndro is the very foundation
of vajrayana practices. It is extremely important to understand how the powerful methods of
the preliminary practices bring about a much more realistic approach to severing our
delusions, and how, beyond just visualizing and reciting, they enable us to actually realize the
view of mahayana.

The journey into vajrayana can only be made through a direct understanding and actual
realization of the mahayana view.

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2014 Dharmashri/Mindrolling International
dharmashri@mindrollinginternational.org

Vajrayana and the Mahayana View
The Mahayana emphasizes the need to understand the complete nature of all phenomena. It
is a view of wholeness.

Ordinarily, the mind merely connects with appearances: the appearance of forms, sounds,
thoughts, feelings, and so on. We then make assumptions based on how things appear, how
they sound, how they feel. This is a very subtle moment: this moment of grasping at some
impression, clinging to it, and in that grasping and clinging, immediately articulating an
assumption.

Simply put: you do not take time to fully understand what you see, hear, think, or feel. Your
understanding arises from fleeting moments that can only produce assumptions, all of which
are based on what you stand to gain or lose in the moment. This builds up sediments of
deluded perception, through which you cannot see things clearly.

It is not the sights, sounds, thoughts, and feelings that are deluded; you create delusions,
through the speed of making biased assumptions. When the mind has no time to open up to
the wholeness, or completeness, of appearances, the sediment of delusion settles into
good and bad assumptions. And at that point, every form, sound, thought, and other
sensation you relate is dominated by egos personal preferences and convenience.

The Power of Perception

To understand vajrayana, know that we are talking about perception.

What is meant by the complete nature of perception? What makes a sound or thought
whole? Are they merely what you imagine them to be, or is there more to it? A very
traditional analogy is this: When someone comes to you with a complaint, are you able to
really appreciate the whole storywhether you like that person or not? A wise person will
listen to the whole story and give an unbiased judgment in the situation. Any judgment based
merely on appearances is an ignorantly made judgment, and any decision will be very biased
or partial. This example applies to the habitual ways we relate to everything we see, hear, and
think.

Our judgments and opinions about appearances are very powerful, in that they become
causes that bring about effects. The karma we create builds a sphere of experience for
ourselves and for the world at large. Karma is propelled by our opinions and judgments, and
when those opinions and judgments are not sane, they bring about negative karma.

No one intends to create negative karma. But a mind that does not perceive things sanely, or
wholly, churns out unending amounts of karma. And karma dominated by egos biased
views, preferences, and conveniences becomes negative karmasimply by not seeing things
clearly and completely.

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Seeing Things as They Are
The Mahayana trains one in clear seeing using the hinayana approach of self-discipline and
taming the mindtogether with the mahayana motivation of compassion. In the mahayana,
it is through compassion towards all sentient beings that one sees things more clearly. The
vajrayana approach is to relate to things more clearly by seeing them as they are.

The vajrayana says: You are relating to things at every moment. Why not relate to them
completely and wholly from the start by seeing things as they are? But for this to happen, the
vajrayana must build upon a strong foundation of hinayana discipline and mahayana
compassion, and a fuller understanding of the nature of self and phenomena.

This comes back to the mahayana view and madhyamika teachings on emptiness. A mind
working with the emptiness nature of self and phenomena should not only be able to think
about emptiness, it should be able to manifest confidence in that view in relating to all
phenomena.

In Theory and in Practice
One cannot just say, All phenomena are empty by nature; theyre just projections of my
mind and this perceiving mind, itself, is empty. Knowing this in theory, you should be able
to walk out and relate to everything from that perspective, including your own mind. And
thenseeing the nature of the perceiving mind, itself, to be emptyyou should be able to
relate to your own craving and grasping.

Actualization of the mahayana and madhyamika view in postmeditation comes from
actualization in study and meditation. A very good bridge between theory and full
engagement is the Seven Branch Offering Prayer. Similarly the ngndro practices and,
later, the creation stages of vajrayana are a bridge between intellectual understanding and its
actualization in postmeditation. Their actual meeting ground is in the methods of
visualization and recitation. By fully engaging the body, speech, and mind, the vajrayana
methods allow you to challenge your understanding of the emptiness of self and
phenomena.

This is the purpose of the practices of ngndro.

THE TRADITION OF NGNDRO

The tradition of ngndro is connected to the terma tradition of Padmasambhava, who came
from India to teach Buddhism in Tibet. His teachings there were so numerous that some of
them had to be hidden, to be discovered at a later time. They were then transmitted by
manifestations of Guru Rinpoche, himself, or his twenty-five principle disciples, who were
also great accomplished beings. These teachings became known as terma, or treasure
teachings.

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Each terma teaching that is discovered becomes a whole cycle of teachings, with its own
principle deity. For example, there are deities for terma based on Chenrezig, Manjushri,
Vajrayogini, Chakrasamvara, and Vajrakilayaall ultimately gathered into the single essence
of Vajrasattva. And each cycle of terma teachings further comprises three stages: its own
preliminaries; a main body of creation and completion instructions; and concluding practices
of mahamudra and mahasandhi, or dzogchen, the teachings on actually realizing the nature
of mind.

The Many Kinds of Ngndro
For as many treasure teachings and individual deities there are, there are that many diverse
ngndros. These days people may just say Kagyu ngndro or Nyingma ngndro. But
within the Kagyu tradition, there are many classifications and lineages, and each of these
lineages has its own general and specific ngndros. For example, there is the general
ngndro done in the Takpo Kagyu lineage, as well as specific ngndros from the Vajrayogini
and Chakrasamvara cycles of that lineage.

So, even though weve gotten used to it, it is never right to just say Kagyu ngndro. If you
were to say this to traditional teachers, they would be confused and ask, Which Kagyu
ngndro? Then you would be confused, because you didnt know there was more than one.
In learning about ngndro, these are important things to know.

It is also important to know which ngndro you are doing. [Rinpoche laughs.] Some of you
do practices without even knowing their names. For example, the Kagyu ngndro that
some of you have happens to be the general ngndro of Takpo Kagyu lineage.

A general ngndro is so-called because the preliminaries are not done just once in your
life. The general ngndro is done to prepare your body, speech, and mind to become a
suitable vessel for the vajrayana teachings. Those of you doing a general ngndro would then
receive transmissions for the sampannakrama and utpattikrama practices: the Rigdzin Thugthig,
for example; or Vajrayogini; or Thugje Chenpo, the Great Compassionate One. Since each
of these cycles of teachings has its own ngndro, there isnt actually time to do much else in
life. [Rinpoche laughs.] Thats how you should see it!

As with each major school or lineage, there are many Nyingma ngndros, both general and
specific: for example, the Dudjom Tersar Ngndro and the core Nyingma preliminaries
known as Nyingthik ngndro: the quintessence of the mahasandhi practices.

The ngndro we are studying and practicing here is the Ati Zabdon ngndro. Ati Zabdon is
the profound essence of Ati Yoga, and the foundation ngndro for all practitioners wishing
to engage in the realization of the dzogchen transmissions. Its main deity is Vajrasattva,
which is commonly the yidam practice of this sangha.

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Of course, if you prefer a different ngndro, thats fine. The structure of these ngndros is
always the same. And these particular teachings are applicable to all the various ngndros:
Ati Zabdon, Kagyu, Longchen Nyinthig, and so on. Since the view is similar, the only
differences would be in the wording of the liturgies and the visualization of the central
figure. So if you have been doing a particular ngndro, dont change. If you havent started
ngndro, you have a choicebut dont change halfway through or let an emotional mind
make your decision.

What must permeate any ngndro practice is the essence.

The Five Ngndro Practices
In essence, the five practices known as ngndro, or preliminaries, are as follows: (1) being
able to surrender to the qualities of the Three Jewels; (2) generation of the pristine
bodhichitta that gives direction to your path of practice; (3) understanding the importance of
recognizing your inherent Buddha nature; (4) being able to truly manifest nonattachment to
self and phenomena; and (5) absolute confidence in the nature as is. These are the
essential aspects of the five preliminary practices:

(1-2) Taking refuge and generating bodhichitta are the first and second ngndro practices,
done together with prostrations. But beyond just taking refuge or doing prostrations, we
are talking about actually recognizing and filling the mind with the pure qualities of the
Buddha, dharma, and sangha. The bodhichitta practice then gives direction to the path of
practice.

(3) Vajrasattva practice is all about gaining confidence in ones basic goodness, or Buddha
nature. Without recognizing the inherent Buddha nature, there is no purpose to the path of
Buddhist practices at all. When confidence in the Buddha nature arises, then

(4) Mandala is a way to test and challenge yourself. Just how much freedom from grasping
to phenomena and self have you truly accomplished?

(5) Guru yoga, ultimately, is about being so certain of the nature as is that you no longer
rely on any references. You are established in the confidence of knowing that all phenomena
are nothing other than projections of your mind. This takes you into the essence of the
vajrayana creation stage: the kyerim, or utpatti, practices.

In this way, the preliminaries should be seen as giving direction to your path of practicea
path grounded on the two essential qualities of devotion and bodhichitta.

Two Essential Qualities: Devotion and Bodhichitta

Where there is devotion, there is enlightenment.
Where there is no devotion, there is no enlightenment.
Its as simple as that.

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[Before receiving transmission for any ngndro and entering the path of the practices, a
vajrayana practitioner must generate two essential qualities.] The first is the generation of
devotion. All of us have benefitted so much from the teachings arising from the kindness
and wisdom of the Buddha, and from the various lineage masters visualized in front of us. In
the Ati Zabdon ngndro, visualize the presence of all these gurus embodied in the single
essence of Vajrasattva and generate strong devotion.

Devotion is best expressed in the form of a homage; and a homage is best expressed as the
strong determination to truly work with ones own mind to transform this precious human
existence into a vehicle of liberation from delusion for oneself and others.

Through that devotion, generate the second essential quality, which is bodhichitta: the strong
intention to make every effort on the path of realization to be for the single purpose of
liberating all sentient beings from suffering.

In this way generate the two essential qualities of devotion and bodhichitta.

THE VAJRAYANA PATH

Now, although the most important aspect of any practice is the essence, nevertheless there is
much to learn and understand about ngndroeven why we do it. There are also many
details, especially as we go through the commentary.

There are short, medium, and longer commentaries on the Ati Zabdon ngndro by Terdag
Lingpa and Lochen Dharmashri. This particular one is of middling length and contains many
of the details of the lengthier texts. Without going into all the details, we cannot not mention
some of them.

Sometimes you all become very tired of the details. But details are important, especially as a
generation of future teachers is coming up. If no one else knows the details, at least they
must know them. Otherwise, you will begin to modify, or water down, the classical texts.
And that should not happen.

On the other hand, many of you begin ngndro with great inspirationand many of you
have done very well. But, in many cases that inspiration does hit a wall. This wall, or
impediment, seems to be hit when you encounter the details of the practices. There are so
many things to visualize, so many ways to think. And then there is the western culture,
which tends to relate to dharma instructions like a kind of manual, which is a very wrong
approach.

The details of the practices should not be seen as technical tools for methodically building
some sort of structure. It is not about building; instead, try to relate to the practices as the
creation of a beautiful garden.

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Like a Beautiful Garden
If you want to create a beautiful garden, you cant become too technical about it. Some
people design gardens that look terrible. Why? Because theyre too meticulous and precise
about everything; every suggestionthree flowers, four flowers, one shrubis taken very
literally. But no matter how hard they try, their gardens never give a sense of having the
freedom to grow or blossom on their own.

Details are important; but always look at everything as a beautiful garden with its own
natural growth. This way you see many details collectively. Theres a difference between
seeing things collectively and being so meticulous about details that you cant see the whole.
If you just look at a flower here, a shrub there, you will never see fullness of a beautiful
garden.

In the same way, there are many details to learn and understand when you study the dharma.
The precision of the details is important. But when you take that information into
meditation, do it more pervasively and allow for the fullness of growth in the sphere of your
mind. A whole mind is like a beautiful garden.

You Can Do This
Your minds ability to hold a vast number of details is naturally ingrained. In the dining
pavilion, for example, you all eat your meals without missing a beat about whos coming and
going, what theyre eating, and whether or not you should have gotten that. You listen to
people, make polite conversation, and respond to questionsall the while, liking and
disliking, planning, and wondering. Your senses are used to taking in hundreds of things at
the same time. When you get bogged down in details, think of this analogy.

You can do this. One mantra, one visualization, some lights going in or outthese are
simple things. The rest is just resistance. Your ngndro practice isnt a unique experience;
you are just replacing what you usually do with something you are not used to doing. Instead
of being discouraged, try to see the wholeness of the practice.

With the attitude of studying, learning, and practicing carefully, retain your enthusiasm and
bring a mind like a beautiful garden to the practices of ngndro.

Not Being Deterred
Modern meditators seem to imagine they can bring fruition to the path of the Buddhist
teachings through intellect alone. Then come the practices of vajrayana!

During the preliminary practices, one often encounters certain obstacles to dedicating
oneself to the practices fully. And those are the best times to look into yourself and see how
far you have actually come with the mahayana view.

What you may see is, on one hand, a very big head filled with information about the
emptiness of self and phenomena. On the other hand, youre having difficulty doing the few

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prostrations youve contracted to do each day. Fifty becomes a terrible number, 100 is
worse; and 100,000 is definitely something you dont want to do. And you wonder: What is
my connection with all those people on the lineage tree? Is there really a Vajrasattva that
helps us? Whats the point of this mandala practice? Why not just sit and watch the nature of
my mind?

These are just a few examples. Those of you doing the practices know that each one of you
could come up with many more reasons, excuses, doubts and hesitations, questions and
answers.

But when an obscuration comes up, this, itself, is the meeting ground. This is where you ask
yourself, Where am I hitting resistance, and what does it mean?

From the mahayana perspective, there is no Iand so this I has no problems, I has no
selfishness, I has no body to be so possessive about, and I has no mind or feelings.

And what about the nature of feelings? Are my feelings about ngndro practice any different
than all the feelings described by Chandrakirti, Nagarjuna, Shantideva, or any of the great
bodhisattvas as being empty in nature? We fool ourselves by thinking: Yes, all those feelings
are empty, but not the feeling Im having right now. And those feelings of goodness that I
cant evoke, and the difficult feelings I cant overcomethose feelings are different.

This is the way you see your minds perceptions and projections. And this is way you
articulate concepts in the sphere of appearances, sounds, and thoughts.

There is just one explanation for obscurations:
you are actually in no hurry to attain enlightenment.
It all comes down to that.

In the ngndro practices, 100,000 is a good number because it is a difficult number. That
difficult number can completely go through all hidden crevices of your minds unique forms
of resistance to transformation and transcendence. It gives momentum to the investigation
of your own mind, which comes to a point where what it sees is not very nice.

What you see are such good qualities and so much aspirationand such reluctance to
actualization. There is just one explanation for this: you are actually in no hurry to attain
enlightenment. It all comes down to that.

You start out with a very good opinion of yourself: How could anyone not want liberation
from suffering for all sentient beings? But if your aspirations were immediately apparent in
postmeditation, your subtle reluctance would be very apparent to others, and you would be
very embarrassed. The good thing about practices like the Seven Branch Prayer, or ngndro,
or creation and completion is that they are individual practices. So you dont have to
embarrass yourself in front of others; you only embarrass yourself. Thats why we sometimes
feel bad in our practices.

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Longchen Rabjam says it very beautifully using the analogy of the onion. You peel away one
skin thinking, OK, theres naked awareness under this. But theres another skin under
that, and another, and another. There is no end to the layers of skins, which are our
habitual patterns. Youre amazed by the intricacies, the thickness, and stickiness of these
layers. You see that anger is not just one thing; its layer upon layer of subtle aggression,
subtle hatred, subtle jealousy, and subtle self-cherishingand suddenly the word
defilement comes alive.

You begin to understand that lifetimes refers not just to the life and death of the physical
body, but to the millions and billions of lifetimes of obscurations repeated over and over.
Then you see that 100,000 un-peelings are just the top layerand you get just a taste of what
it means to tame the mind.

Being Your Own Guide and Teacher
With a more mature understanding of the thickness and complexity of obscurations, any
simplistic or childish sense of them falls apart; and any simplistic or childish understanding
of what it means to tame or transcend the mind falls apart. You see that taming and training
the mind is not that easy. The familiar repetition of giving in to and sustaining deluded
concepts does not erode that easilywhich is what must happen for the inherent nature to
manifest.

As the great teachers have said: When the whole body is full of poison, the amount of
medicine used to treat one fingerwhile it may be good medicinewill not be powerful
enough to antidote that amount of poison. Likewise, to erode lifetimes of strong, sticky
familiarization with obscurations, the little form or formless practices you like to do, the little
bits of dharma you like to read, the little bits of sitting or whatever other sweet little practices
you all like to dowhile all very finewill not be powerful enough to erode that amount of
obscurations.

A vajrayana meditator must have a more mature perspective, and see the issues of samsara
and nirvana more directly and courageously. Just as a child grows up to be independent, a
practitioner grows up and gains the maturity to examine and see such things very clearly.

And then, as is said, you must tie the nose-rope to your own head. The analogy of an
animal tying its own lead-rope refers to a mature practitioner who is not led on by anyone or
anything else: not by theories, not by anyone else on the path. You actually take hold of the
rope yourself and exercise your freedom by being your own guide and teacher.

At this point, however, being your own guide and teacher does require support. Submerged as
you are in layers of familiar habitual patterns and delusions, the supports that keep you afloat
are the practices: in particular, the refuge practice and generation of bodhichitta. And then
there are the practices of actually building up confidence in ones own nature, and of
understanding the true nature of all phenomena and ones selfand the practice of not
being deterred by obscurations.

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BEYOND THE MUNDANE MIND

It is very common, for western and eastern practitioners alike, to think we want to attain
enlightenment and benefit sentient beings. But there is a tremendous difference between
aspiration and actualization. We want to, we hope to, we wish tobut we may not actually
have the courage to actualize our aspiration. Therefore the tendency is to take an intellectual
approach to the teachings. The pitfall, then, is the tendency to come up with many
impediments and obstacles to the path of practice.

Ego Will Never Say Im Sorry
One very big obstacle on the path is imagining there is plenty of time to retain habitual
patterns. Then certain seemingly intelligent ideas may be sustainedideas that are actually
very foolish because they arise from a neurotic mind. But we listen to these messages
because they sound good. We may put off practicing because were not ready. Now, from
all appearances, that sounds very sensible. There are many instances in the mundane world
where this would be taught: a simple logic like Dont cook until you know how. So you
apply that samsaric logic to the path of practice. You think that you shouldnt begin
something unless you know everything about it, or until you really feel ready. You think,
Thats just being honest with yourself.

Now, is ego ever going to be honest with itself or say, Look, Im really sorry Ive been so
negative my whole life, Ill never get it, its time to give me up? We would like ego to come
up that kind of honesty, but its not going to happen. Instead ego is going to continue to
promote the message of mundane-ness and sustain mundane ideas and samsaric tendencies,
so that its survival is completely secured.

It is essential, therefore, to reflect on the passage of time.

Over the years, many of you have done exceptionally well. You have been walking the path
as dedicatedly as anyone possibly could, with sincerity, diligence, and exertion; and you have
maintained a kind of continuum of stability, which is very excellent. But there are also people
with tremendous potential and qualities, people with clear sharp minds and good kind
heartswhich is exceptionally important; people who are generous, skilled, and able to pick
up things well; who have real inspiration and devotion to the pathuntil they encounter the
indulgences of mundane mind.

There may only be one or two weaknesses. Some of you dwell on a single thought for a very
long time. Or, you are just unable to get beyond some quagmire youve created for yourself,
whether its being so busy with your life, or so attracted to certain ambitions, or simply
unable to cut through certain habitual patterns.

For three to five years, such occurrences may be fine. But when someone has not progressed
on the path as they could have, as they should have, after struggling with the same things for
ten or fifteen years or morethat is very worrisome. It leads us to know that you are

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sustaining everything on theory. You may be feeling good, fulfilled, useful, dharmic, and able
to incorporate dharma into your life as an expression of devotion, love, and gratitude. But
your physical body may simply be holding onto words, and agreeing with those words, and
nothing beyond that.

As practitioners who have been so fortunate to receive teachings from many different
teachers over a period of time, it is essential to come to a point of understanding the
importance of transcending. To go beyond theorizing and intellectualizing the teachings, you
must incorporate all those words into your own practice. And for this, it is essential to enter
the vajrayana path.

Vajrayana Is Not Difficult

Vajrayana is not difficult, but we make it difficult.
When you examine this particular difficulty, you see that the only
point of resistance is in actualizing what you thought was your motivation.

Vajrayana is not difficult, but we make it difficult. Much of the difficulty is sparked by the
rumors of those people who struggle with whatwhen you examine itcomes down to
just one point. That one point is resistance to actualizing what you thought was your
motivation. And of course that is difficult. Because at some point, the dharma must be
powerful enough to completely sever all familiarities: familiar attachments, habitual ways of
thinking, and the familiar ways you color those projected thoughts. It means your familiar
ways of articulating labels, and your ways of defining, characterizing, and exaggerating
concepts. These are extremely difficult things to let go of.

On the one hand, you do understand being kind, being selfless, and being able to rest in the
nature of mindall of these things are good. But you dont actually see that in order to be
kind, to practice selflessness, or to rest in your own true nature, simultaneously there must
be a giving up of that familiar way you think; the way you articulate; the way you designate or
label thoughts; and the way you allow the characteristics of a concept to proliferate.

When we begin to sense what this giving up actually entails, fear sets in. Reluctance sets in.
Discouragement sets in. All the habitual neuroses kick up a big fight. They join forces and
come up with all kinds of ideas. Some of these ideas place blame on the outside: these
practices dont make sense; they are very traditional, very dated. I dont feel connected. Why
would anyone do this?

Some good Buddhists resist putting blame on other, so you blame yourself: youre not
adequate; the potential isnt there; you have so much work to do on yourself and you dont
have the time. All sorts of good-sounding ideas will come upmeanwhile, the ground
youre walking on is continuously shifting. It is a continuous, impermanent flow. Time
passesyet the repetition of the same habits goes on.

A practitioner must see this shifting ground and passage of time. In everything you do, sense
this passage of time. Everything is moving; life is moving. Youve been with the dharma ten,

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twenty, thirty yearsthats a long time, more than half of your life. For some of us, much of
our life has moved on. Yet still you sustain a sense of discouragement or doubt or hesitation,
or you nurture some impedimentwhich is nothing but a concept, but you allow this
concept to become so very strong. Meanwhile time passes.

And what are you left with? A very big head, as we say in Tibetanfilled with lots of
theories, lots of profound words and understanding of the viewbut somehow, a head that
seems severed from the body. When the head is not attached to the body, there is no life in
it. Likewise, there will not be enough power in your profound knowledge of dharma to do
the necessary job of completely uprooting the basic tendencies of ignorance.

A meditator who is satisfied with theory alone is like someone who holds onto the seed of a
fruit tree, visualizing the tree it could become in the future. But will you be absolutely
satisfied with the taste of visualized fruitwhile others plant trees and produce fruit that can
actually satisfy not only their own hunger, but the hunger of others? If you truly think you
will be content with a seed and some theory about its potential, while others have an actual
tree and fruit that satisfies hunger and tastethats your choice.

Ultimately, in the nature of mind, yes, even the tree is illusory. If you have truly realized the
mahayana and madhyamika teachings to such a degree that all appearances, sounds, and
thoughts are truly seen as illusory in naturethats fine. One cant argue with that. But in
that case, you shouldnt have any of the dualistic tendencies of ordinary life. There should be
no hope, no fear, and no clinging even to the need for a seed.

But you cant be clinging to a seed, and pretend the fruit doesnt matter. From that
perspective it is essential to understand that, yes, all these aspects and details of vajrayana
especially when we talk about ngndroare difficult. But what is not difficult in life?
Everything is difficult. The mess weve created in life is very difficult. Therefore the broom
that sweeps up that mess must, of course, be very powerful.

Therefore it is necessary to understand ngndro correctly, and to work to realize the
mahayana view.

Cultivating the Vajrayana Spirit
All of you who have begun to understand vajrayana must try to be vajrayanists. Otherwise,
you cannot study, understand, and benefit from the vajrayana teachings.

To being a vajrayanist means that you cannot approach the path of practice with mentality of
someone who is constantly meek. Meekness should be most prevalent when youre about to
do something horribly negative. Youre about to get angry, or youre about to demonstrate
your arrogance, or youre about to get terribly jealousthats the time to be meek.
Otherwise, meekness is not good.

Instead, be brave. Be courageous. Even when you dont feel courageous, always remember
to trust the blessings and the power of the aspirations from which these teachings have
evolved and been given to you.

12

Sometimes it is good to work with your own minds ability; but sometimes it is better to trust
the courage of the gurus and bodhisattvas. When we read the aspiration chants, for example,
in my own mind I always think: More than whatever I could possibly think of, may that be
the better aspiration. In this way, I put more trust in the words of the bodhisattvas. It is their
words of aspiration that form the basis of my courage. And it is their aspirations that actually
hook my meek mind and make it more flexible, more open, and vast.
Train yourself to think in this way, and allow the rigidity and tightness of your hesitation to
be taken care of by the words of the bodhisattvas. Allow their words to nourish and protect
you, and assist you to open up your mind. By skillfully going beyond doubts and hesitation,
you will truly be able to merge your mind with the mind of the Buddha, as is said in the
vajrayana teachings.

This is what it means to cultivate the vajrayana spirit. It is a mind vast enough to take in a
sense of all things being possible: being open is possible; being flexible is possible; letting go
is possible. Having nothing but awareness is possibleand giving yourself every opportunity
to merge your mind with that possibility is essential.

When Something Really Matters
Truthfully speaking, it is understandable that many of the transmissions and teachings you
take wont all be put into practice. You will try, but the mind is very tricky. There are always
changes of mind; and the repetitiveness of habitual patterns; and the time it takes for the
teachings to be fully incorporated and engaged in. You may make a commitment to do
certain things, such as ngndro, which is good. And its quite all right to aspire to
incorporate other transmissions and teachings in the future. You have to keep that aspiration
in mind.

However, when you do them in the future, it is also quite possible there may not be a
teacher. There may not be a text or an explanation. This may or may not be the case. So with
that in mind, if there is something that would be useful to learn or practice in the future
even if youre not doing ngndro at this timeyou should not hesitate to learn about it and
keep the aspiration to incorporate it into your practice.

When something really matters to us, like falling in love, you have lots of time to give to it.
You sleep less. You make yourself available. You give up other situations, without it being a
sacrifice. And you never say, I dont have time for this. Which confirms the suspicion that
you actually do have timebut Dharma is not the priority.

Where Dharma is not the priority, it comes back to not understanding the value of Dharma.
The antidote to that is to really learn the qualities of the dharma. And then it is absolutely
important to truly take refuge in the Dharma and generate devotion to the dharma. The
mind will then open up and the vastness of the entire view of dharma can be contained.

It Comes Back to This
When, through the stages of ngndro, you yourself come up with confidence in your
Buddha nature, from that moment on you are no longer reliant upon any method, practice,
or meditation. But as long as some obscuration is more powerful than your confidence in

13

your Buddha nature, you will always have someone to prostrate to, something to purify, and
something to obtain.

How long will you be in need of more blessings before having more confidence in your
Buddha nature? I leave that up to you. How many more purifications will you have to do
before confidence in your primordially enlightened mindwhich needs no contribution
from youarises? Until then, you will be reliant on the practice of purification.

If, as of today, you can rest and relax without obscurations, you are done with ngndro. But
if the belief in your obscurations is stronger than your belief in the nature of your mind, then
100,000 of each practice is what you start with. Youll have 100,000 moments to think about
it. Ultimately, it comes back to this.

Guru Yoga is the supposed to be the last ngndro practice. But what does it mean to
dissolve the gurus mindVajrasattvas mind, the mind of the Buddhainto your own
mind? It means is that they are, by nature, indistinct. If you can truly rest with confidence in
that, then you can also truly meet all appearances as mere projections of your mind.

Until then you, yourself, are deciding that there are impediments stronger than your Buddha
nature and impurities that need more purification. Because you feel inadequate, you need to
prostrate to those superior to you. Because you think youre submerged in impurities, you
have a Vajrasattva practice to do. Because you feel incapable of being nothing but
bodhichitta, you have a bodhichitta practice to recite. Because you think all the skandhas and
elements are distinct from you, you will actually give away mandalas. And you will keep
putting yourself into the guru and the guru into yourself, until you come to the point of
knowing either you are two or you are one.

If you are two, go back to the refuge and, again, place the guru on the lineage tree. If you
truly see your mind and the gurus mind as indistinct, then your ngndro practice is
complete.

This is the way to look at ngndro from an essential perspective. Those of you who have
confidence in your Buddha nature and can rest in that dont need to come back for the next
session. [Laughter.] That would be best. Thats the way it should be.

These are some things to keep in mind, especially as you begin to enter into the vajrayana
practices.

14

Dharmashri Group, Pema Gatsal, 2013
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Ver. 1.0 2013-10-25

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